Posts Tagged: Iraq

By David Alpher The Conversation Last Friday, the city of Ramadi – provincial capital of Iraq’s Anbar Province, and symbolic seat of its Sunni population – fell to an ISIS assault. The loss is devastating, and not only because of the city’s size or symbolic value, or because it’s another reminder that ISIS is on …

By Amy Gazin-Schwartz The Conversation The archaeological and historical communities are deeply dismayed about ISIS destroying archaeological sites and materials in the last few weeks. We have seen pictures of ISIS smashing statues and artifacts in the Mosul museum. ISIS soldiers have reportedly destroyed buildings at the ancient Assyrian cities Ninevah and Nimrud in Iraq. …

By Joseph Lowndes The Conversation Liberal writers have been lining up for the last month and a half to decry American Sniper along comfortable and predictable ideological lines. “Macho Sludge” was the title of an Alternet piece by David Masciotra. Chris Hedges called it “a grotesque hyper-masculinity that banishes compassion and pity.” Meanwhile, comedian Bill Maher characterized it as a film “about a …

By Suadad al-Salhy and Aseel Kami BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqâ€™s Sunni Muslim minority rejected a call for all-party talks on Wednesday, ignoring U.S. pressure for dialogue to resolve a sectarian crisis that has erupted since American forces left the country this week. With fears mounting that the nation of 30 million might one day fragment …

Nearly nine years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq ousted Saddam Hussein, American troops are pulling out and leaving behind a country still battling insurgents, political uncertainty and sectarian divisions.

BAGHDAD â€“ With deadly attacks still claiming more lives in the war-torn country, the funeral market in Iraq has turned from a simple work into a booming business. â€œBefore US-led invasion, I had one ceremony to take care,â€ mourner Ali Abdel-Kareem al-Shuwafi, 48, told IslamOnline.net on Friday, October 30.

This week has seen a spurt of would-be terror plots that painfully highlights the reality that our world is still not as safe as it should be, despite the two wars still being waged against purported terrorist regimes.

We really could withdraw our massive armies, now close to 200,000 troops combined, from Afghanistan and Iraq (and thatâ€™s not even counting our similarly large stealth army of private contractors, which helps keep the true size of our double occupations in the shadows).

(April 16, 2010) â€“ When is a terrorist not considered a terrorist? When the US media identifies him or her as a â€œChristianâ€. And when is a terrorist group not considered a terrorist group? When the US media calls it an â€œanti-government militiaâ€.

Ethan McCord had just returned from dropping his children at school earlier this month, when he turned on the TV news to see grainy black-and-white video footage of a soldier running from a bombed-out van with a child in his arms. It was a scene that had played repeatedly in his mind the last three years, and he knew exactly who the soldier was.

Effectively canceling a planned speaking tour, the US consulate in the Netherlands has put an extended hold on the visa application of award-winning Palestinian journalist and photographer Mohammed Omer…

In a paper published last September, Prof. Moshe Vered considered under what conditions the two nations might enter a war, how long it might last and how it might end. The results were alarming even to the Israeli intelligence community.